Daniel Rodrick, a middle school teacher employed by the Middletown school district, was sued by the Toms River mayor.
The school district accused Rodrick of handling Toms River business during class time, taking personal calls during class time, and lying to district authorities about his grading procedures. The Middletown Township Public School District must go through a legal process in order to fire Rodrick because he is a tenured teacher.
A request for comment from Rodrick, who started teaching in Middletown in 2002, was not immediately answered.
According to administrators, the district launched an investigation into Rodrick’s behavior after receiving complaints from students who wanted to transfer out of his classes. Rodrick was accused by the school district of leaving the classroom for eleven minutes to answer an unrelated phone conversation.
According to the filing, it is unacceptable to leave sixth grade kids alone and unsupervised for more than eleven minutes while taking care of personal matters. This puts the students’ safety and welfare in jeopardy and calls for dismissal.
In December, Patch announced that Rodrick had been put on leave from the school.
Among the five programs Rodrick was supposed to teach this school year was a sixth-grade course called Hands-on Construction Lab.
In response to Kevin Geoghegan’s Open Records request, redacted records outlining the accusations were made public on Thursday. According to Patch, Rodrick sued Geoghegan’s EMS squad last year, claiming that the squad had not reimbursed Toms River for the gas it consumed.
According to documents filed by the school system, it received emails from Toms River demonstrating that Rodrick, a Republican, had engaged in mayoral-related activities during class hours in January and February of 2024.
According to the district, parents also started to complain about Rodrick’s seemingly tardy grading procedures. According to the lawsuit, Rodrick allegedly claimed to have informed school officials that he had turned in his grades on time, but computer records reveal that he routinely turned in his grades well over the deadline.
According to the school district, the occurrences are the result of growing performance problems, such as improper behavior, missing staff meetings, and not creating lesson plans or promptly responding to parents.
